Nut-Free Pesto - The Unrecipe

I adore basil. I love basil so much that I have even eaten it in ice cream and loved it. Which means it probably won't surprise you that I love, love, love pesto. You can throw pesto on pretty much anything and I will happily eat it. But there is just one problem. Do you know that pesto has nuts in it? My poor nut-allergy girl can never have real pesto because of those pesky (yet delicious!) pine nuts. In my desperation for some good pesto we have tried many different experiments over the years, and this is the best that I have been able to come up with. (As a side note, sunflower seeds absolutely do not work in place of the pine nuts. At all.)

This is not a recipe, sorry. When I married Marquis, I was the kind of girl who could (barely) follow a recipe and have stuff turn out decent most of the time, but any deviations were pretty disastrous. After 12 years of being his sous chef and watching lots of Food Network, I now consider myself a halfway decent cook, I don't always use recipes, and most of the time the food comes out edible. So this unrecipe will be in the form of "some of this" and "a few of that."  I have included some of what I think would be the approximate measurements, but don't hold me to it because I honestly don't know. 

Since that is way more than enough babbling, on to the unrecipe! 

Nut-Free Pesto

Ingredients:

Basil - about 1 cup

Parmesan cheese - about 1/2 cup grated

2 cloves garlic, peeled

Kosher salt

Freshly ground pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

First, wash some basil and throw it in a food processor or blender. I buy the big bag of basil at Sunflower Market. Grate a bunch of Parmesan cheese and throw that in there, too. Peel 2 garlic cloves and throw those in, then sprinkle in some kosher salt and grind in some fresh pepper. Turn the food processor or blender on and drizzle in the olive oil while it mixes. When it looks like pesto, you are done!

Of course, the pesto is good on pasta, but the last time I made this we actually had it on pizza. We had homemade crust, pesto for the sauce, some leftover grilled chicken from the night before, diced tomatoes, and grated mozzarella and Parmesan. Yum!! I was going to get a picture of that, too, but well, it didn't last long.

I have to add the disclaimer that if you are a pesto aficionado, this is definitely not the same. But it's really pretty darn yummy stuff and a good replacement for when you can't have the real thing.

**After I wrote this and before it actually posted (yes, I blog ahead of time, so sue me), my sister informed me that if you bruise the basil before you blend it, it lets out more flavor. More flavor means even more yummy pesto! So smack that basil around first, take out some aggression.